Sunday, October 5, 2014

Should religious belief trump secular law?

Does religious belief trump secular law? My latest piece on Patheos' FriendlyAtheist discusses a law professor's take the statutes that have been delivering a resounding "yes," in cases like Hobby Lobby -- and how they confer added benefits for believers beyond the constitutional freedom of religion.

From the piece:

...if the law can only be enforced if the government demonstrates that
there is simply no other way to achieve the same means, we will be left
with a bizarre and ultimately unworkable legal maze that exempts almost
anyone professing almost any belief (regardless of its basis in reality)
from almost any law. If closely held religious belief is all that’s
needed to exempt someone from “neutral and generally applicable” laws,
the law essentially loses all value, and every citizen indeed becomes “a
law unto himself.”